This was so funny! I didn’t stop laughing! Some parts were obviously planned and were supposed to be funny but quite a few things went wrong when I went and even the actors couldn’t not laugh which added to the hilarity. It’s a simple story and the comedy is definitely the selling point here. Seeing their close interactions is great too!

Rating: 9/10 << might be in the race to be my favourite D-Stage! But I’ll have to rewatch it to decide that finally.

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First I will talk about the story:

Basically Miyazaki Shuuto* has always been told to aim for the Olympics but he doesn’t see the point; he’s on a losing streak, he doesn’t want to go to the Olympics, he doesn’t even think he likes it anymore. Then thanks to a trip to Tokyo with his Judo buddies, he has his first love, finds a rival and discovers what he really wanted to do and what Judo means to him.

*They’re using their own names for the characters.

Simple enough story right? Which is great because it left a LOT of room for the BIG theme of the play: the comedy. This was absolutely hilarious! A lot of it was planned comedy but unfortunately the day I went, a LOT of things went wrong or happened without the other actors knowing it was going to happen so not only were the audience laughing hard but also the actors were laughing insanely hard too that they had to stop the play a little so both actor and audience could calm down xD Which means it as a lot of great fun!

To be honest, when I first got my ticket and it was Row Z and the site said row Z is actually row 3 and a bench seat I kind of panicked because I imagined the type of benches we have to sit on in primary school in England and they are not comfortable! SO I was super worried I’d have to put up with one of those types of benches for a 2 hour plus show BUT when I got there they weren’t really benches; just normal chairs without the back and with a cushion! And my bad didn’t hurt at all! I was comfortable the entire time! Also I was super lucky that the person in front and the person next to me didn’t show up SO I was technically on my own and second row! Which made it SUPER easy for the actors to spot us; seriously the first row could TOUCH the stage without even stretching their arm out! And Mitsuya definitely spotted me and I think Ikeoka looked over a few times -- but being me I kept looking away from IkeP if he so much as seemed to see me, cos I’m a shy girl with my bias’ xD

SPOILERS

Anyway! Now to the parts of the play I wanna focus and talk about! First let’s talk about the PLANNED comedy okay?

First Mitsuya pretending to be a returnee from America and speaking half English and half Japanese, at a fast speed, was both hilarious and impressive. For the most part his English was pretty accurate but there was one that cracked me up hard and that was "it’s privacy” (instead of saying “it’s private”) which we understand in English but isn’t right xD

Then next was Mitsuya playing Shuuto’s mother and his ‘chest’ was huge! xD also after she catches her husband look at her sons dirty magazines and pins him against the wall was hilarious.

Shuuto’s a master at showing comedy through his face! When he goes to see the girl he likes’ match every time the shuttlecock (she plays baminton) went to the rival player his face would be like -____- or angry and when it went back to her, he’d be like ^_^ or =D. It occurred about 5 or 6 times and it just got funnier as he continued.

Towards the end when Shuuto realises he does want to do Judo, IkeP and Mitsuya come running in and are like ‘hey you’re next guy is called Kaji Masaki and he’s a big guy so be careful’ which is hilarious that they mentioned Kaji’s name. We cracked out every time they used a D-Boys members’ name as the rival xD there were three times:

First was Shishon Jun played by Mitsuya and Mitsuya was doing the whole pouting his lips and playing with his blonde (wig) hair.

The second one was Nishii Yukito, played by IkeP, and he was like ‘YEAH!’ in a high pitched voice and kept flicking his hair back. But this scene soon changed into an unplanned accident scene when Shuuto did the final topple, IkeP’s wig came off and IkeP was facing the audience straight on and he just looked in shock as he realised the wig had come off and then cracked a smile that he couldn’t contain. He grabbed the wig and cradled it as he walked off xD after IkeP had walked off Shuuto was left on stage by himself and he just goes 'tondemonai koto na/unbelievable stuff is happening today' and then we went back to some planned comedy where he takes his time to re-adjust his uniform and checked the ties were the right and equal length and looks so proud of himself when he’s finished xD

Another funny moment is went Mitsuya and IkeP come on stage as the Kindai Kids (play on Kinki Kids) and do a song together and their outfits are ridiculously flashy and bright, and IkeP trying to sing high notes was funny too.

Some I’m not sure if they were planned or improvised/accident comedic scenes:

When Kobayashi gets angry at Shuuto and grabs him and he pushes Shuuto back but Ikeoka is behind him and Ikeoka is stuck between the wooden pole, Shuuto and then Kobayashi still pushing on Shuuto xD

There’s a part where Ikeoka (as Shuuto’s dad) is trying to talk to his son seriously but looks down and realises his fly is open and proceeds to try and close it for the remainder of the scene (it’s got a few more minutes left) and the audience were laughing too much to pay attention to what he was saying.

And now for the, even the actors couldn’t keep it together and laughed hard scenes:

Towards the beginning of the show, the boys were running around their coach Kobayashi, and without expecting it, he grabbed IkeP and toppled him over, and IkeP got back up and just looked at him in shocked and Mitsuya and Shuuto had sopped what they were doing and just stood there wetting themselves laughing as IkeP also cracked up and joined in, as well as the audience.

Another was a karaoke scene with Shuuto and Minami. Shuuto was trying to sing badly, but it ended in his voice cracking, and he couldn't stop laughing as he continued to sing the rest of the song.

About halfway through Mitsuya and IkeP suddenly stop the play for a few minutes and get everyone to do Mitsuya’s Exercises! So we all had to stand up and we did an arm stretch, a neck stretch and a hip roll stretch. The Mitsuya was like ‘Mtsuya Solo!’ and danced around the stage widely and IkeP just stood to the side, lent against the wall, just looking at him speechless and in amazement at the silly things he was doing. When Mitsuya finished IkeP couldn’t speak at all xD

Towards the end, to help Shuuto win the girl and tournament, Arai comes to where the tournament in and before he can start a fight, IkeP, Mitsuya and Shuuto knock Araki out, but then Kobayashi comes in but they don't have enough time to 'hide the body' so they cover him up with their bodies, BUT Arai's face went right into Mitsuya's crotch and he’s not allowed to move because he’s supposed to be unconcious, so we slowly see his face going red and his chest laughing, as Mitsuya is facing us with his head in his hands dying of embarrassment and laughing.

One final one was when Shuuto lost his balance at the left side of the stage and IkeP luckily saw it pretty soon and smoothly grabbed his arm and re-balanced him xD

Side note; can we give a special mention to IkeP and Mitsuya’s eye contact! Talk about giving each other the sex eyes all the time! xD

During the AfterTalk

Naturally it was centered around valentine’s day and when we came in, all our leaflets had a pink heart stickie note on and they explained that it’s our chocolate and as we leave, we can put the hearts in the box of the actor we like. Then suddenly IkeP was like ‘So we’re a host club now? and then it slowly got to them calling the play ‘Boku no Jyuudou chan’ xD

They spoke about the most chocos they got as kids and Arai and Shuuto were adament they weren’t popular but none of them believed Shuuto xD IkeP spoke about getting TomoChoco and was like ‘whao! this is so nostalgic!’ and Mitsuya was like ‘that’s not my generation’ xD and they were like ‘but you’re only 19 right?’ and he’s like ‘yeah I was born in Showa but I’m a Seihei’ and he realised he’d fucked up Heisei and just died and they all got on his case about it, ‘when was Seihei?! Never herd of it! Must be an old, old era’ xD he gave up trying to correct his mistake.

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Final note:

This stage was a godsend in terms of reconfirming and reaffirming my love for IkeP. He did amazing in Yuhiden and Litche Hikari Club at the end of 2015 and that’s where I fell for him so I went into 2016 super hopeful for him but he only ended up doing like ONE play and ONE dorama and that was April and September, so I was super worried for his career and worried I wouldn’t be able to see more of him BUT we’re only in February and already he’s got a dorama airing, he’s doing a stage now and he’s definitely got Dansui stage in May! So he’s already doing more this year which makes me a super happy bunny and seeing him (finally!, again!) in this on Monday really helped me remember ‘ah yes I love this idiot’ xD he really is hilarious and cute!!

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That’s all I got to say really. I am very much looking forward to the DVD! It’s a thoroughly enjoyable play! Seriously, a lot of fun and I didn’t stop laughing for over 2 hours!